


Still better than falling for a straight girl

by anthropophobicameba (orphan_account), PansexualPuppy



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Worm - Wildbow
Genre: 'Cause multiverse, A note on the warning:, Backstory, Canon Compliant, Cophine Cameo, Crossover, F/F, For Carmilla, Middle School, Seventh grade, actually, also if anyone actually wants more of this, it's just mentions and one rather fucked up line, not Worm, we have a couple more chapters almost finished from like two years ago, which is why it's still tagged no archive warnings apply, yes Worm
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-11-25
Updated: 2014-12-02
Packaged: 2018-02-26 22:41:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2669078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/anthropophobicameba, https://archiveofourown.org/users/PansexualPuppy/pseuds/PansexualPuppy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You will be able understand this even if you only know one fandom.</p><p>(Or neither)</p><p>For Carmilla fans: This is why Danny is so protective of Laura.<br/>For Worm fans: What if Richter triggered with a bio power?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter one

**Author's Note:**

> 2017 Edit: so I'm kind of embarrassed by this now, but I'm not going to take it down so, you know, just keep in mind I was like 15
> 
> We tried to keep them as in character as possible given the age/species change.
> 
> If you're trying to picture Dragon, she's my (anthropophobicameba) icon [edit: not anymore, sorry], and you can find a full version on my tumblr of the same name.
> 
> I didn't feel like calculating what tech was like when Danny was in seventh grade, so it's probably a bit inaccurate.
> 
> Second chapter will be posted tomorrow.
> 
> While reading keep in mind this was written by a teenager and their eleven year old sister.

Danny was not entirely sure what to think of the new girl.

She was adorable, and very friendly, even if she did seem to be scared of, well, everything.

And she was really, incredibly smart. It was a little bit scary.

But she could swear she already knew her. And she would get this look sometimes, somewhere in between calm reflection and unadulterated terror. And she seemed like she was either way older or way younger than she looked. Or possibly both. She seemed to know the answers to the hardest questions... and yet she seemed disconnected from the rest of the world, like she didn't understand the simple rituals of every day life. And... she’s not sure. She couldn’t say what exactly, but there was something a little bit off about her. She just seemed, severe, in a way that didn’t really fit with the image of a tiny seventh grader.

And god, she was really cute.

\---

She shared a few classes and a free with her, but it still took a couple days to work up the courage to talk to her.

“Hey, I’m Danny.” Dragon looked up from her book.

“Hey. I, um, knew that already. Attendance.” She gave an awkward little smile.

“Oh, right.” That was slightly embarrassing, “I didn’t actually catch your name?” Danny sat down next to her to make the height difference slightly less ridiculous.

“Dragon,” she said, offering a handshake.

“Nice to meet you, that’s an, um, interesting, name.” She smiled again.

“Yeah...” Danny waited for her to elaborate but she didn’t.

“So, uh, how are you enjoying the new school?”

“Oh, It’s um, it’s okay I guess.” she gave a breathless sort of laugh, “Hey, uh, what’s your next class?”

“Science, you?”

“Oh, English, who’s your teacher?”

“For English or Science?”

“Science”

“Niehaus”

“Oh! I have her too! What do you think of her?”

“I’m not really sure. I mean, she seems to know what she’s talking about, but, uh, I kinda think she’s a stoner?” Dragon laughed.

“Yeah, I can definitely see that.”

“I don’t know, she seems pretty cool though,” the bell rang. “Crap, I have to go, I’ll um, see you in history?”

“Yeah, see you then!” she waved as Danny rushed out of the library and they both grinned.

\---

History was her second worst class, but at least she managed to get a seat next to Dragon this time. “Hey,” she said, and Dragon smiled back. She tried to think of something else to say. “Oh, uh, do you know what the homework was?” Dragon started to respond but their teacher started the lesson and Danny glumly started taking notes.

It only took a few minutes for her to give up on the notes and start drawing a detailed blue dragon in the margin of her notes. She was only vaguely listening when Mrs. Anderson said, “Christoper Columbus came back from his fourth voyage on May thirteenth, 1502.”

Dragon raised her hand next to Danny, and the teacher called on her. “I thought it was May eleventh 1502.” The teacher lowered her glasses and starred at Dragon with cold eyes. 

“You thought wrong.” 

“But the book says th-”

“Ms. Richter! You have interrupted this class enough! Unless you want to go to the director’s office I suggest you stop.”

Dragon went quiet, and Danny gave her a sympathetic smile. She saw others doing the same. She really hated teachers like that. It looked like it was going to be a long year.

\---

Danny managed to catch up with Dragon in the hallway . “That was ridiculous,” Danny said. Dragon smiled weakly.

“Yeah,” she seemed really shaken up.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Uh, yeah, I’m just, I’m just going to go see my advisor. I’ll see you in French, yeah?” She was trembling slightly.

“Yeah, sure, I,” Dragon was already speeding away, “I guess I’ll see you then.” She shook her head and headed off to English.

\---

“Do you have any idea what she’s saying?” Danny asked.

“She’s explaining the different conjugations in French.” Danny raised an eyebrow. 

“How do you know all this?” Dragon shrugged.

“It’s pretty easy actually, you see when she says-”

Ms. Cormier coughed loudly and gave them a stern look, and the two became silent. Ms. Cormier went back to talking in French.

Ms. Cormier finally spoke in a language Danny could understand, English. “Now class, I’m assigning a fifteen sentence short story in French, you will read it in class so we can work on the pronunciation. I want it on my desk in a week.”

Danny wished she had been thinking about French and not, well... Dragon. She groaned and Ms. Cormier took notice, “I hope this homework won’t be a problem for you.” she said with a small smile.  
Danny looked at her feet and walked out of the classroom. 

“Are you okay?” Dragon looked concerned.

“French doesn’t make sense!”

“I can help you if you want.” Dragon said with a smile.

Before Danny could say yes, Ms. Cormier opened her door, “Dragon may I talk with you for a second?” She glanced at Danny.

“Go ahead, I’ll wait.” Dragon nodded and walked back into the classroom.

She couldn’t help but try to listen in, even if it made her feel a little guilty. She couldn’t quite hear them, so it took her a minute to realize they were speaking in French. Well that explained a lot. Did she move here from Quebec?

She glanced through the glass window and saw Ms. Cormier talking to Dragon in hushed tones. Dragon looked really upset. Ms. Cormier had her hand on her shoulder and seemed to be trying to sooth her. She said something and Dragon nodded. They hugged quickly and Dragon left.

“I assume you were watching that?” Her eyes were red but she said it with a smile.

“Um.” Danny couldn’t really think of how to respond.

“It’s okay,” she said, waving it off. She smiled tightly, “It’s not like you could understand it anyway.”

“Yeah.” Danny winced slightly, “I’m really sorry.” Dragon shook her head.

“Like I said, it’s fine. So what was it you were having trouble with?”

\---

Danny let herself feel confident. As much as she wanted to avoid repeating the Christina debacle of last year, Dragon actually seemed to like her. Now if she could only find her. Seriously, the parking lot wasn’t that big, where could she be?

And she was like five feet away. Of course.

“Hey!” Dragon started and turned to look at her.

“Oh! Hi!” She seemed kind of tense.

“So, how’s your day been?”

“Um, it was okay, how was yours?”

“Good.” There were a few seconds of pause while Danny worked out what she was going to say. “Uh, do you feel like getting a coffee?”

“Oh, I, um, I have to wait for my dad.”

“You could call him or something.” Dragon shook her head.

“He probably doesn’t have his phone.” She was looking at the ground now. Danny smiled awkwardly.

“You could try.” Dragon shook her head sharply. She looked kind of panicked now.

“I, um, it’s just a,” She closed her eyes for a second, “It’s just not a good idea.” She licked her lips, “But I’ll, uh, I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?” Danny forced herself to smile.

“Yeah, sure.” Dragon nodded and went back to looking for her father’s car. Danny bit her lip and walked sullenly towards the school bus. That did not go well.


	2. Chapter two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The new warning is just for discussion of and one really disturbing line, because Saint.

Danny groaned as her alarm clock went off, rejection still burned from the day before and she wanted to bury herself under her blankets. However, as her alarm clock refused to _shut up_ , she reluctantly got up and staggered over to the mirror. Her eyes were red, and her hair was messy from tossing and turning all night. Her chest was heavy.

She pushed herself through her morning routine and headed to school.

\---

Danny managed to avoid Dragon for all of writing, which was an impressive task given she sat three seats away and spent the entire class trying to get her attention. Ms. Lake eventually moved her, which made things a lot easier, but made her feel kind of guilty when she saw the crushed look on Dragon’s face. She just couldn’t deal with talking to her right now. At least she managed to get some actual work done this time.

\---

Dragon finally managed to corner her during third.

“Hey,” she said, plopping down in the seat next to her. Danny ignored her and continued reading. Dragon took a deep breath. “Look. I get that your disappointed, but the silent treatment really has to stop. I have known you for about a day. And I like you, really, but I’m not going to risk going out with a relative stranger just because they’re cute. You have to think about it from my perspective. In the position I’m in it just isn’t safe for me to-”

“Safe?” Dragon sighed.

“You really have no idea who I am, huh?” Danny shook her head. Dragon closed her eyes. “You know what?” Her voice was sharp. “Why don’t you just look me up when you get home. Then I can talk to you.” She left the library without another word.

Well that was weird.

Wait.

Did she just say...

She likes her?

\---

 

Dragon more or less ignored her for the rest of the school day. Danny thought that that was probably fair, if very annoying.  
It took her a few minutes to remember Dragon’s last name before she could google her. There were a lot of results. The first result was a blog post which linked to a news article that linked to another news article which linked to a video that finally gave her what she wanted.

_“A new parahuman has triggered in Newfoundland. Andrew Richter has created what appears to be a child. He considers her to be his daughter. The nature of his power is still unclear, as the creation of this child appears to have been accidental. The girl appears to be 7 years old, and is very intelligent for her apparent age. Many question the girl’s humanity, a few even demand she be eradicated. Many others are outraged at these accusations, and believe her to be fully deserving of citizenship. Several debates have been organized globally to discuss her intelligence and humanity.”_

Okay. Wow. That’s... a lot. She wasn’t really sure how to react to that. It did explain some things, at least. Danny went to the next article.

_The girl hasd been sent to psychologist Geofff Pellick to test her humanity. Before her fourth visit it was brought to court that the girl had allegedly been sexually assaulted several times by the psychologist, and a trial is in progress. His lawyer’s primary defense is the argument that the alleged victim is not human, and there for is not deserving of the rights granted to a Canadian citizen. A monitored empath has been sent to test the girl’s humanity. The results will be announced publicly in the courtroom tomorrow, and thousands of Pellick’s followers are waiting expectantly for the child to be dubbed inhuman, and for the charges to be dismissed..._

Ick. People sucked. At least that kind of explained why she didn’t feel safe. Danny found an article dated a week later.

_Pellick’s’s followers are outraged to hear that he has been convicted on three charges of sexual assault. Dragon (the name the girl has decided on) has gotten almost 700 death treats, and counting. Many people, including her father, fear Dragon is not safe in her current dwelling. Arrangements are being made to guarantee her continued safety._

And then she made the mistake of reading the comments.

\---

Danny did not sleep that night.

\---

The next morning, after drinking a ridiculous amount of coffee, Danny had more or less decided what she was going to say to Dragon. She didn’t want to risk someone overhearing in Writing, so she waited for third again.

And then she immediately forgot everything she wanted to tell her.

“Uh, hi.” Not a great start, but it worked. Dragon looked up warily.

“Hi.” Danny pressed her lips together and carefully sat down next to her. She looked down at her lap.

“So, I looked you up.” Dragon nodded, not meeting her eyes. “I,” she paused, working out what she wanted to say, “I’m really sorry.”

“Why?” She still wasn’t looking at her.

“Um,” Danny let out a breathy laugh. “Hard question. I... hmm. I’m sorry for being an asshole yesterday. I’m sorry for...” Danny trailed off. There was no good way to phrase the next bit. Dragon shrugged.

“It’s okay.” She cleared her throat. “And I think we could maybe try coffee. In a very public place. Well, as long as my dad can pick me up, so I guess I’d have to check with him first. Um, the place on Main Street?” Danny blinked. That was not at all how she expected this conversation to go. Danny thought about it. It was Christina’s favorite place, she’d been lucky enough to not have any classes with her this year and didn’t really want to push it. On the other hand... She remembered reading people talk about how they wanted to bomb her or rape her with a curling iron (Danny was probably not going to sleep tonight either). Main Street worked.

“Uh, yeah, that’s fine.” Dragon smiled.

“Great! Does tomorrow work for you?” Danny nodded. “Cool, we’ll do that then.” Dragon tapped her pencil against the table. “Um, so you needed help with the French homework?”

\---

Third period passed quickly and the rest of their shared classes were filled with giggles and awkward conversation. Danny fluctuated between euphoria and panic as she had an actual date in an actual day (It is a date, right?).

\---

Danny had finished all her French homework with Dragon in her free period, and the only other homework she had was writing, which she had finished on her five minute bus ride, so she was planning on playing a few video games and not thinking about the comments when she got home.

Danny unlocked the door and took off her shoes. Her mom called out from the upstairs, “Danny, is that you?”

“Yeah.” Danny’s mother came down and smiled lightly.

“Have you done your homework?”

“Yup.”

“Great.” Danny slung her backpack on to a hook and followed her mother into the dinning room where her mother started working on her laptop. There were a few moments of silence, then Danny announced, “I have a date.”

“Oh! Who is he?” Danny cringed slightly, but her mother didn’t notice.

“They’re a new student, you don’t know them.”

“When is it?”

“Tomorrow, at the coffee shop on main street.” Her mother grinned and closed her laptop.

“So, tell me about him.” Danny sighed.

“Um, they’re really smart, and uh, friendly, and, erm, a lot shorter than me.” Her mother nodded enthusiastically.

“Maybe you could invite him over sometime.” Danny had a moment of panic, then managed to calm herself down.

“Mom, this is just a first date, don’t get so excited.” Her mother made a visible effort to relax, but couldn’t stop grinning.

“Of course, dear.” Danny started walking upstairs. “Tell me how it goes!”

\---

Danny was pretty sure telling her mother was a bad idea, but it was done and she had more important things to ponder. Example: What the hell was she supposed to wear?

Danny felt like a cliche for obsessing over it, but it was an important choice. It was still a moderate temperature, so she had a fair amount of options. She worked her way up, starting with shoes. Nothing with heels, she didn’t want to make the height difference even more dramatic, but should she go with sneakers or flats? She decided she would have to leave that one for last. Jeans... definitely the green ones. That much decided, she went through every item in her shirt drawer and finally settled on a camisole and a sheer white t-shirt. Which meant she should go with the flats. Okay, done. That was easier than she’d expected.

She felt really silly for spending so much time on that. Danny looked in the mirror, “Hi Dragon, how... are you?” Danny sighed. “Hey, how you doing.” Ugh, no. Danny felt ridiculous. She sat down on her bed and considered turning on the TV. There was probably nothing good on, and it’s not like she would be able to focus on it anyway, so she just laid down and thought about the date.

She should probably go to school at some point.

Danny muscled past the knot of nerves in her stomach and pulled herself up.

She could totally do this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For Carmilla fans: Parahumans are people with superpowers, when they trigger is when something really awful happens and they get their powers.
> 
> Parahumans are extremely rare in this universe, because of the empath and her father Dragon has met about 10% of them. Because of this, there are no superheroes/villains, and pretty much everyone is a rogue.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Accidentally made this chapter a bit short, but we'll update as soon a possible.

She brushed her hair for about the fiftieth time, and still felt it needed more brushing. She frowned at her reflection and forced herself to leave it. If she stalled any longer she was going to be late. She pushed herself out of her chair, and reminded herself to breathe. _I can do this._

_Probably._

_Right?_

Well, either way she couldn’t afford to wait any longer.

When she finally dragged herself out the door, she was trembling. Again, she reminded herself to breathe.

She got in just as the bus driver was about to give up on her. She decided to sit in the front, to alleviate the risk of throwing up.

Which turned out to be a terrible idea.

Christina’s stop was next. Danny banged her head against the back of her seat. _Fuck, I did not think this through_. She quickly turned her face to the window to avoid being seen. The bus pulled over.

Christina got on.

She didn’t see her, but she did start to get in the seat behind her. Danny held her breath.

Jasmine called her towards the back, and she moved on.

That was close.

Danny breathed deep.

Danny spent an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out how she was going to get off the bus without Christina seeing her. She knew she was probably blowing things out of proportion, but she couldn’t help it. This day was nerve wrecking enough without that particular encounter to worry about.

Another deep breath.

The second the bus puled into the school drive way she practically flung herself out the door and kept on running until she got to the school. She made to it to Writing a few minutes before the bell, and started reading to try to calm herself down.

\---

First period was filled with awkward glances and the occasional whisper. As soon as the period was over the two started talking, and were already halfway through the door when Ms. Lake called after them. “Ms. Lawrence may I speak with you?” Danny looked at Dragon. “I can wait for you for a minute” Danny closed the door and walked up to her (a small part of her noted that she looked even prettier up close) “What’s wrong Ms. Lake?”

“I wanted to congratulate you personally, you’re on the honor role for this class.” Danny froze, and a smile slowly crept up on her face.

“Really?” Ms. Lake nodded. Danny took a moment to process. She’d never really thought herself that good at writing. Remembering she was not alone, she looked up and smiled “Thank you.” Danny frowned. “Is that all?” Ms. Lake sighed.

“Just about,” she said, her tone careful, “but there is one other thing.”

\---

The first thing Danny saw when she walked out of Ms. Lake’s classroom was Dragon talking to a few older boys, and she didn’t look happy. If anything she looked scared. Danny coughed loudly. “Dragon, are you okay?”

“She’s fine,” one of the boys answered.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Danny stepped forward and pushed her way through their circle. After a bit of grumbling one of the boys waved the others away and they disappeared.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Dragon smiled. “What did Ms. Lake say?” Danny thought she might be shaking slightly. It took her a second to register the question.

“She just wanted to tell me I’m on the honor role.”

“Oh! That’s great!”

After a few moments of utter silence Dragon looked at Danny and coughed, “Well I’d better get to class, the bell’s about to ring.” She started to walk away when Danny grabbed her shoulder.

Dragon flinched.

“Dragon, are you okay?” She took a moment before answering.

“I don’t know.”

“Just b-” The bell rang.

“Oh! I’m going to be late for class! See you in third period!” Dragon started running down the hall, and after a moment Danny headed towards math.

\---

Second period passed quickly and Danny and Dragon met in the library as had become their routine. There was a moment of silence as they both tried to figure out what to say. Danny spoke first. “So, um, how was your class?”

“Oh, it was just gym. Nothing particularly interesting. You had math, right?” Danny nodded, “How was that?”

“Um, I had a little bit of trouble understanding some of it, my teacher spoke kind of fast.”

“Which topic?”

“Um, linear equations.”

“Oh, I’m pretty good at those. Do you want help?”

“Sure. I have some homework from her so we can start there.”

“Cool. So what exactly did you have a problem with?”

\---

The rest of their shared classes passed without major event, and Danny found herself impatiently wasting her last free period. It wasn’t that she didn’t have work, but it was a Friday and she had other things to think about.

What were they even going to talk about? Music? Food? So far their discussions had pretty much all centered around school. She didn’t really know anything about her actual interests. What if they had nothing in common?

Danny took a deep breath. There was really no use obsessing over this.

That didn’t mean she could stop.

She tried starting her homework, but couldn’t focus for more than a few seconds at a time. 

She tried reading next. It was pointless. She couldn’t stop running through the date in her head.

Argh.

\---

A chill went through Danny. She wanted to go back inside to the comparative warmth, but they had decided to meet here and she didn’t want to lose her in the crowd.

Danny waited a few more minutes until she heard a voice behind her “Oh! There you are.” Danny turned around and saw Dragon smiling at her. 

“You ready to go?” Danny asked with a grin.

“Yeah.” As they walked to the coffee shop Danny made the mistake of walking in silence. It only took a moment for her to start cycling through old worries. What if Cristina is there? Would one of them confront her? What if they found out they were on a date? What if Jasmine or her friends were there? What would they say to Dragon? Danny’s thoughts were interrupted by Dragon. “Do you go the the coffee shop often?” Danny finds herself ridiculously glad for conversation.

“No, not any more at least.”

“Why not?”

“That’s a long story, I guess I just wanted to avoid someone.” Danny decided to switch topics. “Have you been there?”

“Once or twice.” There was silence until the coffee shop was in sight, then Dragon laughed unexpectedly, her breath coming out in a puff of fog. “Thank goodness, I’m freezing.” Danny gave a half laugh in response.

“Yeah, me too.” Dragon held the door open for her and she walked inside.

They joined a surprisingly short line and immediately failed to make conversation.

Danny decided to focus on what she was going to order. She was still undecided when she reached the front of the line. Dragon ordered first.

“One back coffee please.” Danny said the first thing that came to mind.

“Can I have a green tea please?” The barista took down their orders and after a brief moment of confusion Danny paid.

They took a seat in a booth and waited for the barista to bring them their drinks.

There was silence for a full minute. Danny was the one to break it.

“Um...” She cleared her throat. “So, what do you like to do for fun?” Dragon looked up.

“Oh, erm...” She shrugged. “Just read mostly. I really like the Culture novels.” Danny grinned.

“Me too!”

“Really?”

“Yeah!”

They fell back into silence.

Their drinks arrived.

Dragon took a sip then straightened up. “So,” she paused to smile, “What do _you_ do for fun?” 

Danny bit her lip. “Hmm, I, um, read a lot,” she looked down for a second, “I’m, uh, thinking of joining the track team actually. “

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Why?” Danny shrugged.

“I just like running I guess. Besides I’m pretty good at it. Long legs and all.” She paused, then laughed. “The basketball coach keeps trying to recruit me.”

Dragon didn’t exactly laugh, but she did a smile/huff thing that was pretty close. Danny guessed that that probably wasn’t too bad.

Now what?

Danny took a sip of her tea.

“So, what’s your favorite Culture novel?”

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback please!


End file.
